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I came downstairs for breakfast having forgotten there was an election on. As I made my coffee I remembered and thought, I wonder if they've got any projections yet. I wasn't overly concerned. Some were saying it was tight, but the posh bloke off that politics podcast and a few others had said Kamala was going to win easily and Elon Musk seemed to be the only one saying there would be a landslide the other way and he seemed to have ulterior motives. Anyway the thing probably wouldn't be decided for weeks or months and might need a civil war, so....
Oh, Trump had basically won.
Back in 2016 I'd feared Brexit happening and Trump winning, gone to bed thinking everything was looking OK and woken to seeming disaster and felt disorientated. This time I hadn't really even contemplated an actual Trump victory and been blase enough to forget about the election and now as I looked at the news on my phone my first reaction was to laugh. Jokes involve the unexpected happening and here it was. It felt like the pendulum might have started swinging back to some kind of normality, but then the pendulum did a thing pendulums don't and abruptly reversed direction mid-swing.
Whatever happens around 50% of people are going to be able to say "I told you so". Is democracy over in America (or is the system so rigged to the super rich that it was already)? Will the Handmaid's Tale become reality? Is Trump a fascist?
It should be apparent in the next few years, though if all the worst projections do or don't come to pass then I don't suppose either side will yield much ground.
It's very depressing to go backwards rather than forwards, but I am not sure the alternatives have been particularly impressive in any recent elections and to see Trump or Farage (our next PM in waiting) seen as anti-elite or men of the people just shows how much trust has been lost from the political process. And even though some of the conspiracy theories are wild or offensive, the verifiable crimes and misdemeanours are enough to send people another way.
It seems that even the people who vote for Trump see him for what he is, but still prefer that.
I feel sick about it, but can't stop laughing either. It is such an insane move and I am pretty certain it also means that JD Vance will become President and that's even crazier than Trump getting another go.
Ultimately when you take into account all the fake votes that the democrats did this is a really crushing defeat for them. That's two of the last three elections that they've tried to cheat their way to and they've only managed it once. It's clearly easier and much less effort to do it all honestly like Donald Trump.
Our lives are in the hands of others and we have little control over which way destiny will take us. For all the Sliding Doors (sorry,
fish pie mix-ups - how has this phrase not yet entered popular parlance?) that we think we may have, most of what happens to us is as the result of actions of others and is out of our hands.
Ultimately it's probably not Handmaid's Tale or new Hitler that we have to worry about most from all of this, but the fact that America is now led by someone who doesn't care about climate change for the next half a decade. Which should be enough to tip us over the edge. Though we're over the edge already.
I did get a brief proper laugh out of this at bedtime. Phoebe is very cross that the person she calls Carrot Man has become President. In bed she doctored a photo of Trump to make him look like a carrot with his belly sticking out of his shirt and green hair (like a carrot has). It's a very good character, but she said I wasn't allowed to post it online as she was worried Carrot man fans would be angry and come for her. Which is a shame. And already the prospect of retribution is causing satirists to self censor. But I will respect her wishes. If she'd published this pic before the election then I think the result might have changed. Fish Pie Mix up.
